Tacoma, WA Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
550 ft 170 m420 ft 125 m350 ft 105 m210 ft 65 m69 ft 21 m0 ft 0 m
Contours every 500 ft, bold every 2,500 ft
USGS 3DEP · U.S. Census Bureau
How to use this mapviews, tools and data
- Elevation
- Ground colored by height from green (lowest) to white (highest), with contour lines every 40–500 ft (USGS data).
- Satellite
- A 2016 satellite photo at 33 ft (10 m) detail; contours off.
- 3D
- Tilt and turn the terrain; hills are raised 1.5×, or set ×1 for true height.
- Click or tap anywhere
- The exact elevation of that spot in ft and m.
- Measure
- Pick two points for the climb, descent and grade along a straight line.
- City area
- Fades everything outside the official city limits (US Census).
Elevation Data
Tacoma sits at about 340 ft (105 m) above sea level, worked out from 2020 Census block heights on USGS 3DEP, weighted by residents.
Typical elevation
340 ft 105 m
most residents: 230–400 ft
Lowest
0 ft 0 m
at sea level on Commencement Bay
Highest
550 ft 170 m
on Indian Hill
Average
270 ft 80 m
all land inside city limits
Tacoma spans about 550 ft of height, so no single spot tells the whole story. The ruler shows where its people live, and where the other numbers you'll see come from.
| Figure | Elevation |
|---|---|
| Typical Where people live: half of residents higher, half lower | 340 ft105 m |
| Highest point Inside city limits, on Indian Hill | 550 ft170 m |
| Lowest point Where the land meets Commencement Bay | 0 ft0 m |
| Town center USGS map point for Tacoma | 250 ft75 m |
| Airport (SEA) FAA airport elevation, the highest point of its runways, 10 mi northeast of the city limits | 432 ft132 m |
| Average of all land | 270 ft80 m |
Elevation profile, west to east
9.5 mi west to east through the town center.
Topographic Map
- Location
- City in Pierce County, Washington, United States
- Population
- 228,202 2024 est.
- Land area
- 49.8 sq mi + 12.7 sq mi water
- Density
- 4,584 per sq mi
- Coordinates
- 47.2529° N, 122.4443° W
- Time zone
- Pacific UTC−8 / −7
- Landform region
- Pacific Border
- Drains to
- Strait of Juan de Fuca
- Airport
- Seattle-Tacoma International (SEA) 432 ft
- ZIP codes 15
- 98402 98403 98404 98405 98406 98407 98408 98409 98416 98418 98421 98422 98444 98465 98466
⤓ Download this map
WebP, 1200 × 900. Free to use: credit “ElevationOf.com” with a link to this page.
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS, FAA
Nearby Places
Nearby towns by typical elevation
- Midland410 ft
- Tacoma340 ft
- Fife Heights340 ft
- Waller340 ft
- University Place310 ft
- Fircrest300 ft
- Milton280 ft
- Dash Point230 ft
- Ruston130 ft
- Browns Point93 ft
- Fife21 ft
Rankings by typical elevation
- Towns in Washington352nd highest of 639
- Towns in Pierce County30th highest of 72
Peaks and hills nearest, by height
- Rattlesnake Mountain, King County3,519 ft
- Tiger Mountain3,004 ft
- Taylor Mountain2,610 ft
- Squak Mountain2,020 ft
- Gold Mountain, Kitsap County1,760 ft
How we measure
- Typical elevation: the population-weighted median: every 2020 Census block inside the city limits, at its USGS 3DEP height, weighted by the people who live there. Half of residents live higher, half lower.
- Lowest, highest, average: USGS 3DEP bare-earth heights on a 1 arc-second (≈100 ft, 30 m) grid, land only, inside the Census city limits (TIGER, Jan 1 2026).
- Pits: the lowest point is the lowest ground outside closed hollows (quarry floors, mine pits, terrain-model artifacts): any hollow under 0.4 sq mi (1 km²), and any hollow under 2 sq mi (5 km²) whose floor is more than 100 ft (30 m) below its rim; and outside patches below sea level of under 0.4 sq mi (1 km²). The single lowest 3DEP cell, −5 ft at 47.2721° N, 122.5374° W, is in such a hollow or patch and is not counted; this coastal land's lowest point is sea level on the coast.
- Nearby Places: nearby towns and rankings use each town's typical elevation, so every town is compared like for like. Rankings count every city, town, township and census-designated place, including places inside a town. Peaks and hills: the nearest summits with at least 980 ft (300 m) of prominence within 62 mi (100 km), then federal (GNIS) summits within 16 mi (25 km) when there are fewer than 5; each is the 3DEP top on a ~7 ft (2 m) window, or the NGS published height when a usable survey mark sits within 160 ft (50 m) of it (shown as published).
- Rounding: computed heights are rounded to 10 ft (5 m), or to 1 ft (1 m) under 100 ft; 3DEP is good to about a meter, not a foot. Published figures (FAA airport elevation, NGS survey heights) are shown as their publisher gives them.
- Datum: North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (NAVD 88). NGS plans to replace NAVD 88 with a new datum (NAPGD2022); heights will then shift slightly.
- Sources: USGS 3DEP, GNIS, Watershed Boundary Dataset and physiographic provinces; U.S. Census Bureau (boundaries, 2020 blocks, 2024 population estimates, Gazetteer areas, ZIP code areas); FAA airport data; BTS time zones; NOAA NGS survey heights. All public domain.